Shooting with the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 IS Pro: Versatile zoom lens is excellent across the board
posted Wednesday, November 16, 2016 at 6:44 PM EDT
Micro Four Thirds shooters have a new zoom lens to use, the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 IS Pro. Offering a 35mm equivalent focal length of 24-200mm, the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 is well-suited for a wide variety of subjects. I tested the brand-new optic with the Olympus E-M5 Mark II camera body and came away very impressed, as you can read in my Olympus 12-100mm f/4 IS Pro hands-on first impressions.
Despite its versatile zoom capabilities and constant f/4 aperture, the 12-100mm f/4 is surprisingly compact and lightweight, although it will be a bit front-heavy when mounted on the more compact MFT cameras, such as the E-M5 Mark II. The weather-sealed lens can shoot quite close with a maximum magnification of 0.6x (35mm equivalent). It's truly a jack-of-all-trades lens, but don't think it's a master of none, as this lens proved to capture sharp images, even wide open, across its entire focal length range.
At just under US$1,300, the Olympus 12-100mm is not one of the cheaper Micro Four Thirds lenses available, but it is one of the most versatile. While I want to wait until the lens goes through our full lab testing process to make any big claims about its optical quality, I will say that it looks very promising. Read my hands-on look of the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 IS Pro to learn more about using the lens. To see the captured images, head on over to the E-M5 Mark II gallery and look for "12-100MM" in the filename.
